Sultry 36-year old Rosie Ledet was spoon fed Santana and ZZ Top often turning a blind eye to the music of her parents -- Zydeco -- that is until she experienced the magic of Boozoo Chavez at a dance. Then, somewhere along her musical path, Rosie picked up the accordion and even as she was learning to play, the artist began to pen her own songs. Her bluesy voice naturally lent itself to songs in both Creole French and English and fast-tracked her as a unique female powerhouse in a male-dominated Zydeco world.

This hot chili pepper - who has performed at Jazz Fest, the St. Louis Blues Festival and many more -- promises to blow the lid off the gumbo at Friday's performance at Covington's Green Room.

Rosie hit the back roads of Louisiana and East Texas in the mid-1990's and released seven albums on Maison de Soul Records along the way. Since then, her touring schedule mushroomed to include dates throughout the United States and Europe and her latest release, Pick it Up, has received outstanding critical and commercial acclaim.

Covington lies slightly to the east of Rosie's hometown of Church Point, Louisiana. With a post-Katrina population nearing 300,000 in St. Tammany Parish it is hard to believe that the streets of the North Shore are virtual ghost towns at night -- so much unlike life in Acadiana as I was reminded during the recent Acadian festival in Lafayette where everyone was dancing the Zydeco -- from visiting French tourists to old hippies and little kids to pawperes and silver-haired mawmeres. It came to me that something was grossly amiss on the North Shore - like the roux.

The Green Room

There is hope: the Green Room. Tucked away between St. John's Coffee Shop and the best hamburgers in town at Vasquez is the Green Room. The name references the backstage dressing room of a theatre or concert hall.

Like most locals, I strolled past the club assuming it was too young, too grunge or too bar while taking in a street festival or having dinner downtown. Although I occasionally peeked inside the door, I now realize that I made some incorrect assumptions about the venue, so I have been watching it a little more closely.

Over the past year, the Green Room has morph into a true treasure of the Covington strip - as it transcends its humble and youthful beginnings. With a capacity of about 150, it can be a challenge to bring in top names, but a glance at the club's current calendar is nostalgically reminiscent of New Orleans' own Maple Leaf.